Relativism and Universalism in Linguistics - Fachbereich 10 ...

38 Sections
14:30–15:00 Wischer, Ilse (University of Potsdam)
The Grammaticalisation of Will- and Shall-Futures in Middle English
Reconceptualization of Spatial Relations
Bogdanova, Svetlana
Irkutsk State Linguistic University, Russia
rusjap@mail.ru
Every language has a set of means to characterize spatial relations. It is universal. However,
the languages of the world differ widely in their treatment of space (G.A.Miller, Ph. Johnson-
Laird). Thus, phrasal verbs in the English language are considered to be a typologically
relevant phenomenon. Such means can be called language specific.
A limited number of spatial elements in any language, caused by the peculiarities of the
human perception of space, help linguists to trace their groupings and define the main
directions of shifts of meanings. Spatial elements (spatial prepositions, particles, prefixes,
etc.) show a tendency to develop metaphorical meanings by extending their direct spatial
meanings. The extended meanings can describe some other spheres of activities, including
mental activity. Our comprehension of complicated and abstract entities and events of the
surrounding world is grounded mainly on basic spatial dimensions, which are simple, their
number is limited as well as the number of describing them spatial adverbs, prepositions,
prefixes, etc. These elements can be used in several cognitive domains both in direct and
metaphorical meanings.
It is possible to differentiate two levels of knowledge structuring: conceptualization and
reconceptualization. In the process of conceptualization direct spatial meanings are formed
with the possibility of their further metaphorization. The oppositions of spatial particles in
English and spatial prefixes in Russian are observed: up-down; ahead-back; in-out; on-off;
войти-выйти(come in – go out); спрыгнуть-запрыгнуть (jump down – jump up), etc. In
the process of reconceptualization particles and prefixes in metaphorical (extended) meanings
combine into groupings, because practically every event can be described from different
points of view. The peripheral meaning of one spatial element can be connected with the
peripheral meaning of the other spatial element, as a result of this merging there comes a
grouping of their metaphorical meanings, which is a productive derivational model both in
English and in Russian. Thus, in some contexts the particles out, down, off can have rather
close meanings and together they can characterize the cognitive domains of ‘tiredness’,
‘cooling’. E.g. wear out – wear down – wear off; cool down, cool off, cool out, etc. The same
phenomenon of reconceptualization we can observe in Russian: in some contexts verbs with
different spatial prefixes have practically the same meaning. E.g. rus. обогнать – перегнать
(come first), выжидать – пережидать (wait for some time), побить – избить (beat smb up),
уронить – выронить (drop smth), colloq. утворить – вытворить – натворить (do smth
wrong), выгнать – прогнать (send off), въехать – заехать (drive into), etc.
The groupings of spatial elements reflect the processes of conceptualization and
reconceptualization of spatial relations. Phrasal verbs in English and prepositional verbs in
Russian illustrate the peculiarities of the linguistic categorization of the world, caused by the
human cognitive activity. They also illustrate the tendency in both languages to combine
spatial elements with extended meanings into groupings to characterize some definite
cognitive domains.